MoD failings highlight ‘a lack of business sense at the top’

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An aerial view of the Ministry of Defence Procurement Executive Headquarters at Abbey WoodCrown

Deborah HaynesandDavid Robertson

Last updated at 5:06PM, February 1 2011

The multibillion-pound failures in procurement at the Ministry of Defence are
the responsibility of an elite group of military officers and senior civil
servants, according to sources with knowledge of the department’s structure.

The Defence Equipment and Support (DE&S) board, led by General Sir Kevin
O’Donoghue, implements the decisions to contract and supply everything that
the military and the MoD uses, from paperclips to submarines.

“It should be the most acutely commercial power in the MoD,” said one source.
“It is the interface with industry. The people on the DE&S board
should be the sharpest commercial people of all who